Royal Park is home to extensive recreation amenities, including picnic areas with communal barbecue facilities, Melbourne Zoo, a nature playground, and some of Victoria’s most established playing fields and sporting clubs. The largest of Melbourne’s inner-city parks, Royal Park’s 181-hectare (447-acre) site was reserved in 1854 for recreation purposes by Governor La Trobe.
Today, the park offers large open spaces for recreation and areas of native and indigenous vegetation. Stretches of grassland alternate with regions of lightly timbered eucalypt forest and wetlands, creating an inner-city oasis for possums and a wide variety of birdlife.
Built adjacent to the Royal Children’s Hospital, Nature Play at Royal Park provides a fantastic resource for patients and visitors to the hospital. The seven Wurundjeri seasons of Melbourne are central to the design, informing the structure, planting and natural play experiences.
In 2016, the playground was awarded Australia’s best playground by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. They applauded the “responsive design – to the local heritage of place by focusing on the seven seasons of the Wurundjeri as well as respecting the highly valued character of Royal Park, and by encouraging patient and staff interaction.”
Christie barbecue cooktops were selected for the project based on their sustainability, low carbon foot print and energy savings, while providing a top-quality communal barbecue experience.
